Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It's not often that one reads an article that starts with seagulls flocking over the debris in an empty stadium, only to morph into a warning piece about the growing confidence and momentum of said stadium's resident team. But when that empty stadium is SBC Park, and when that up-and-coming team is the San Francisco Giants (who won tonight with a walkoff home run...over the Nationals, but still, a walkoff home run), perhaps the Dodgers should take heed. Writes SI.com's Tom Verducci (fire up that laptop, cigarcow):

Who are the Giants? It's a great question, especially in their own backyard. Yes, they have the scintillating Tim Lincecum, but he can only pitch about 16 times at AT&T Park. Otherwise, San Francisco has not a single player to keep a fan from making a run to the concession stand, rest room or, worse, home.

What the Giants do have, however, is an opportunity to reestablish an identity, and they can thank Manny Ramirez's potency problems for that chance. Once Ramirez was suspended for 50 games last Thursday for using a banned substance, a female fertility drug used to boost testosterone, the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, playing to the greatest home start in 123 years, put the rest of the NL West into play again. In truth, the Diamondbacks, having already fired their manager amid a 75-91 nosedive since last April, Padres, who may as well trade their one valuable pitcher (Jake Peavy) from a woeful staff, and Rockies, who turned losing into a skill by going 1-8 in one-run games, need the Dodgers to suffer even more attrition.

If Ramirez opened a door for the rest of the NL West, the Giants, who entered Tuesday in second place, four games back of L.A., are the ones best prepared to walk through it -- which is saying something about the division considering that San Francisco is the worst-hitting outfit in the entire league.

As Jon wrote over at Dodger Thoughts tonight, of Jayson's Werth's stealing of second, third, and home plate tonight against the Dodgers, that figures to be a wakeup call for the Dodgers. Let's hope that the pitter patter of footsteps from up north also make the Dodgers snap out of their current funk. (Hat tip to Jon for the SI Verducci link, as well.)

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comments:

Eithier, Kemp, Martin, and Loney each look like one is waiting for the other to start picking it up. The result is each one looks like a deer caught in the headlights without their benevolent protector in the line-up.Look for Blake or Hudson to snap them out of it. Furcal looks like he's not quite right and can't help.

And for what it's worth, I think McCovey Chronicles has some pretty good stuff, especially captions like this, which I found thanks to the keen eye of Rob over at 6-4-2. Pretty funny; nice job guys, and thanks, Rob.